Historically, telecommunications have involved the transmission of voice and fax signals over a network dedicated to telecommunications, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a private branch exchange (PBX). Currently, telecommunications and data transmission are being merged into an integrated communication network using technologies such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). Earlier communication technology involved devices with relatively limited capabilities, and because of their simplicity, these devices rarely failed. Furthermore, when the devices did fail, it was a relatively simple process to reestablish connections. However, as telecommunication systems have become more complex and the capabilities of communication devices have increased, failure in communication devices has become more and more common.